Seven Capital have a ‘window of opportunity’ to come up with an ‘alternative plan to reopen the Oasis’ according to North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson.
Talking on the BBC this morning Mr Tomlinson said “Snoasis was a very exciting once in a lifetime opportunity” and for understandable reasons “it hasn’t landed.”
“Every single ounce of effort must be focused to ensure we can get a reopened, improved Oasis Leisure Centre” for Swindon he continued.
Labour Councillor Jim Grant also urged Seven Capital to “abandon the ski slope and focus on the Oasis” as he believes that Swindonians would give up the dream of a Ski Slope in favour of being able to revisit the leisure centre again. “That is the thing that is dear to the hearts of the people of Swindon” he said.
Head of Swindon Borough Council David Renard believes in partnership with Seven Capital, the Oasis does have a future “a refurbished Oasis centre, I believe we can land that” he said however “we can’t do it without Seven Capital.”
Mr Tomlinson also sees a future for the Oasis which needs at least a £5million injection to help modernise the facilities saying “it is deliverable, there is sufficient adjacent land available for development and the profits from that can be used to reopen the Oasis, modernise it, refurbish it, make it cheaper to run and increase admissions and once again make it a regional attraction.”
A SevenCapital spokesperson said: “We are working alongside the council to determine an appropriate solution. We will release an update in due course.”
Don’t you just love the fact all Swindon’s politicians do is seem to talk the place down? How is it logical that one project should have to be forfeited to affect the other when both would be a product of external investment into the town, both paying their own return on interest? Why would these politicians not want this investment to go ahead when the very nature of it would be to bring footfall and therefore money to the region long term. It’s like they want Swindon to be a failure.